Gray
by idea outlet
Summary: Darth Maul survived the battle on Naboo, and now he faces a mysterious Gray Jedi on the far side of Hoth. Art credited to NickyBarkla on DeviantART /art/Darth-Maul-286301642


I am Gray. That is all you need to know about me.

Then again, I suppose for any of what I say to hold any value, I should elaborate slightly on that phrase.

Gray was not the name I was given. I can't quite remember what my birth name was, as I gave it up long before I took the title Gray. I believe it started with an 'R' and never truly fit me.

I would also like to point out that I did not take the name Gray because of my hair color, nor is it my gray robes, although both hold some symbolism within the name.

Now more to the point, I have a story to tell.

It is not an old tale, which I'm sure you would not expect from one appearing to be at the end of their dotage. However, the lesson is an old one, one I hope for you to learn very well.

Now, my tale begins, as many do, with the death of an old friend...

...

Lightsabers clashed as the life drained from Qui Gon Jinn's eyes.

I suppose fear was his greatest emotion as he died, although not for himself.

No, never for himself. He feared for his Padawan, and the youngling he believed to be the Chosen One.

But our story is not about them.

It is quite a strange and unexpected turn of events that a Padawan bested one of the last Sith. It is even more strange and unexpected that they were mistaken in his death.

No, the one known as Darth Maul lived being cut in half and falling an untold distance. I do not believe he lived of his own choice though. He, nearly unconscious, reached out with the Force to slow his dissent on instinct. And his master soon found him.

His master found him and healed him, only to torture him again.

For those of you not familiar with Darth Sidious's training methods for Darth Maul, it can be compared to how a cruel man trains an attack dog; beatings followed by allowing him the chance to beat another, sometimes a bounty hunter and other times a slave, followed by more beatings, starvings, neglect, and finally, a chance for freedom through a task Sidious needed done.

This time, however, Sidious had no task which he wanted Maul to complete except that of a slow and painful death. And as Maul realized this, his urge to survive and to be free grew.

The details of his escape are a bit blurry to me, as he was drugged, both at the time of his escape, and at the time of it being told to me. My guess is that he stumbled into a scavenger ship, as Sidious's prison for him was on a trash planet. Half-dead, drugged, and barely breathing, Maul must have been quite a sight to the crew.

Unfortunately for them, Maul was not one to leave witnesses. Their bodies are floating somewhere in the fastness of space, choked by an invisible hand.

I can't say where the scavengers were going, but it must have been far for them to set down on the Hoth system.

I had chosen Hoth as the location for my sanctuary because of its remoteness combined with the numerous artifacts to be found from past battles and civilizations.

I sensed Maul as soon as his ship set down. And by set down I mean crashed, as Maul had ruptured the vent system while he was disposing of the original crew and had been inhaling toxic fumes for some time.

I do not need the holovids to recall our first interaction. I remember our first conversation very vividly.

"Where...am I?" maul said as he became aware of his surroundings, in spite of the heavy pain-killers he was on.

"Well, I suppose that depends on your attitude. It could be your sanctuary, or it could be your prison, and very quickly after that, your graveyar-"

With seconds, Maul had lifted me into the air and was choking me to death.

Being lifted into the air by the Force and finding yourself unable to breath was a surprisingly invigorating experience.

It was not so much the act itself as it was it being the first action I'd had in years.

With a sway of my hand, I landed softly on the ground, breath returned.

"Jedi!" Maul spewed out as if something alive had crawled up his stomach and out of his mouth.

"Wrong," I replied evenly.

And with that, I left him to ponder over the events that had just occurred.


End file.
